Vladimir Balabkin
- Criminal Code
- Article 282.2 part 1, Russian Criminal Code
- Case category
- Extremism casesCases against Jehovah's Witnesses
- Verdict
- Suspended prison sentence
- Sentence
- 1 year
- Date of verdict
- 2023-09-13
- Region
- Amur Oblast
- City
- Belogorsk
Recognition by human rights organisations
- Recognised as unlawfully deprived of liberty for exercising freedom of religionby Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners, 14 September 2023
This is the assessment of the organisation named above, not ours. FACTUM reports it with attribution and does not make its own.
Case summary
A resident of the Amur region, cancer patient. In March 2021, Balabkin's home was searched. Later, he was questioned in relation to a case of "organising activities of an extremist organisation" due to his involvement in the activities of the Jehovah's Witness community. Representatives of this community are prosecuted under extremist articles solely because of their religious activities — holding meetings and worship services and attracting new supporters. On September 13, 2023, Balabkin was sentenced to 4 years in a "general regime colony." On December 19, the appeal court commuted the sentence to a year of probation.
Others charged under Article 282.2 part 1, Russian Criminal Code
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Source: this person’s record in the OVD-Info political persecution database
Published under CC BY 3.0. The criteria for treating a person as politically persecuted belong to OVD-Info; FACTUM relays their assessment and makes none of its own.
OVD-Info has been designated an «extremist» organisation in Russia — by decision of the Russian authorities, like other independent human rights and media projects.